The Stockley Scones Fiasco
by SNKFanfics
Summary: A found recipe leads Oliver and Avanna on a quest to make it- with disastrous results...


"Avanna, Avanna!" Oliver called out, racing towards his cousin's room. He knocked on the door before bursting in. Avanna gave a yelp as she turned from her laptop. "Oliver! What have I told you about waiting for me to answer before entering? I could have been indecent!" Oliver blushed before apologizing. "Sorry... but I wanted to tell you about something I just found!" He proudly pulled out from his pocket..."A scrap of paper?" Avanna raised an eyebrow. "Oliver, I thought Ann told you about digging through the trash-" "It's not trash, Avanna! It's a recipe- a recipe for the Stockley Scones!" Oliver interrupted. Avanna paused. "As in from Miriam's recipe book? I thought she lost it when she was moving over to the new house. We should really give this back to her-" Avanna was interrupted by Oliver once again. "And waste the chance to try this for ourselves? Avanna, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. We're going to make these scones and keep Miriam's legacy alive!" "...Miriam's retired, not dead," Avanna stated bluntly. "And sure, not like I was doing anything really important." She closed her laptop and got up from her desk. Oliver grinned and ran out to the kitchen to wait on Avanna.Avanna entered the kitchen to find Oliver with James, his pet goldfinch. He was adjusting a small chef's hat onto the bird's head. Avanna sighed. "Oliver, James can't be in here while we're cooking. It's dangerous for him." Oliver turned and looked at his cousin with a puppy dog eye. "But he wants to help, don't you, James?" James responded with a tweet, which if Avanna spoke Bird like Oliver, would translate to "Oliver, get this stupid hat off me or I'll peck out your other eye." Avanna remained steadfast- "No, Oliver, I'm serious. You can play with James once we're done." Oliver pouted but tweeted to James that they would have to play later. James responded by shaking off the chef's hat and flying off, doing an aerial backflip before leaving the kitchen."So, what does the recipe call for?" Avanna asked, tying up her hair. Oliver looked over the piece of paper. "We're going to need 2 cups of flour, 14 cups of sugar-" "Wait, that can't be right. Lemme see that." Avanna took the paper and looked it over. "That's 1/4 cup of sugar. Maybe I should read the instructions- you know, since I have 20/20 vision. You can find the ingredients." Oliver scowled, but obeyed. Avanna looked over the ingredients:2 cups all purpose flour1/4 cup granulated sugar2 tsp baking powder1/2 tsp table salt6 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes1 cup blueberries3 tbsp lemon zest3/4 cup cold heavy cream1 egg, large2 tsp vanilla extract1 tbsp cold heavy cream2 tbsp sanding sugar, optional"Alright, what all do we have?" Avanna asked, turning towards Oliver. Her face fell as she surveyed his gatherings: a bag of flour, a bag of brown sugar, a box of baking soda, a can of salt, a tub of margarine, a bag of frozen blueberries, an orange, a can of Reddi-Wip, a carton of liquid egg whites, and a small bottle of vanilla liqueur. Oliver sighed when Avanna glared at him. "This was the best I could find. I had to raid Tonio's liquor closet to get the vanilla stuff..." Avanna massaged her temples. "This is fine, we can work with this... alright, first we need to preheat the oven to 400 degrees. You set the oven up while I perform step two."Oliver nodded and headed towards the oven while Avanna read the second step. She took the flour, salt, baking soda, and brown sugar and began whisking it together. It looked a bit darker than she imagined, but it would suffice. She looked at the next step and faltered- how was she supposed to cube margarine? "Ugh... Oliver, get me a tablespoon and a cutting board." Oliver dashed back over with the requested materials. "Here you go. Maybe I could start with the wet ingredients? Just to save time." Avanna nodded, pushing over the needed ingredients to Oliver.Oliver found a small mixing bowl and added the liquid egg whites, the vanilla liqueur, and a few sprays of Reddi-Wip into it, whisking it together. The results were... dismal, to say the least. "Eugh, this reeks of alcohol..." Oliver said while holding his nose. "And is it supposed to be so lumpy?" Avanna looked over at it and sighed. "It'll have to do- maybe once we mix it with the flour mixture, it'll look better. Now hand me a cheese grater; I'm about to add the orange zest." Oliver nodded and handed her the grater. Avanna scraped the orange against it, causing the top layer to fall in the flour mix. She then added the frozen blueberries and started mixing them up, until the blueberries were lightly coated with the flour mixture.Oliver poured the cream mixture into the flour mixture and watched as Avanna mixed them together with a fork. "Alright, now we need a place to pat it out. Oliver, pour some flour and spread it out on a flat surface." Oliver nodded and proceeded to pour out some flour- but ended up pouring a bit too much and caused it to spill onto the floor. Avanna groaned- another thing they'd have to clean up. "Go check if the oven's preheated yet." Oliver nodded and went over to the oven- a trail of floury bare footprints following behind him. Avanna headed over to the floured counter and spread it out, then placed the dough onto it. She began patting it out into a disc and flipped it over to coat both sides."The oven's preheated," Oliver reported, running back over to Avanna. Avanna smiled- finally, something was going right! "Good, good. Now, let's get these onto a pan and into the oven." Oliver paused. "...what pan?" Avanna stopped what she was doing. "The baking pan we were supposed to prepare. We did get a pan, right?" The silence between them was deafening. "D'Arvit," Avanna cursed, before looking through the drawers for a pan. She pulled out a pizza pan. "This will have to do. Oliver, put the disc on the pan so we can put it in the oven." Oliver carried the scones dough and plopped it onto the pan. Avanna was about to put it in the oven when-"Wait!" Oliver ran over with the Reddi-Wip. He sprayed some on his hands and rubbed it on top of the pastry. Avanna gave a questioning glance, so he explained himself: "The recipe says you're supposed to brush the tops of the scones with heavy cream. I'm just trying to follow the directions." Avanna rolled her eyes, but allowed Oliver to finish before putting the scones disc into the oven. The hard part finished, Avanna and Oliver sat down to relax. Oliver surveyed the mess the two had made. "Oh, Prima's gonna kill us..." he moaned. Avanna shook her head- "Not if we clean up quickly." She got up and grabbed a broom, prompting Oliver to do the same. Oliver took a couple of paper towels and sprayed the countertop with all the flour on it."You know, this was easier than I thought," Avanna said, a smile on her face. "And I imagine the scones will turn out pretty well." Oliver nodded, a smile on his own face. "Yeah, even with the replacement ingredients, they should taste- why do I smell burning?" They both looked towards the oven, which was starting to smoke. Quickly, Avanna turned off the oven and pulled out the scones disc- which was burnt. "What happened? Did the botched ingredients do this?" Oliver paused before answering. "...I think I might have used Celsius instead of Fahrenheit for the oven..." Avanna's eye twitched, before she... started laughing? "Oh my goodness, this was a complete disaster! We should not be allowed to bake, Ollie." Oliver tried to hold back a laugh of his own, but failed. The two cousins couldn't stop themselves from laughing at their disastrous attempt to bake."What's going on here?" a voice asked in the kitchen doorway. Avanna and Oliver looked over to see Miriam in the doorway, groceries in hand. James was perched upon her shoulder. Avanna placed the ruined scones behind her and tried to hide them. "N-nothing! Just enjoying each other's company." Miriam nodded as she put the groceries out on the counter. "Pity, I was hoping you two could help me make scones- a little birdie told me you found my recipe." Oliver's eye widened as he looked at James. Slowly, he pulled out the piece of paper and handed it to Miriam. "Is this it?" he asked. Miriam looked over it and nodded. "Indeed it is. Thankfully, I was able to remember all the ingredients, so we'll have enough to bake with. Now, you two clean yourselves off so you can help me." Avanna and Oliver nodded and ran to their rooms to change. Left alone in the kitchen, Miriam looked over the ruined scones disc and smirked. "Well, mine was about the same the first time I baked it." With that, she scraped it into the trash and started prepping to bake proper scones.*Directions for the Stockley Scones*1 Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.2 In a large bowl, whisk together flour sugar, baking powder and salt.3 Using a pastry cutter, cut the butter into the flour mixture until only a handful of small, pea-sized pieces of butter remain.4 Add blueberries and lemon zest and stir to combine, just until blueberries are coated with flour mixture.5 In a separate bowl, whisk together the cream, egg, and vanilla extract.6 Pour cream mixture into flour mixture and stir with a fork until just combined.7 Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat into a disc about 6 inches across. 8 Use a large knife or bench scraper to cut into 6 wedges. Transfer to prepared baking sheet. 9 Brush the tops of the scones with heavy cream. Sprinkle with sanding sugar if desired.10 Bake for 16 to 19 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through, rotating baking sheet halfway through.11 Serve warm or room temperature. Store leftovers in an airtight container. Best enjoyed the day they are baked


End file.
